Volume 6 Issue 24…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…June 20, 2003

By John Burl Smith

As a young man, I sifted thoughts for hours contemplating the level of freedom blacks from America said they attained in France. Words of expatriates, such as Josephine Baker, Richard Wright, Ida B. Wells, Nina Simone and Miles Davis, told of a refuge from hatred, bigotry and racism that allowed artists to flower in cultivated gardens. France, the nation that gave America the Statue of Liberty, was more than a place for black power advocates; it was an ideal to achieve. Watching the French Open semi-final between Serena Williams and Justine Henin-Hardenne, the world saw French cosmopolitan savior faire take it on the chin as Roland-Garros got a black eye.

The match still in doubt, a series of ugly events unnerved Serena and her loss of concentration cost her the match. Losing the chance to keep her consecutive grand slam streak alive, the jeers and whistles most definitely left a bad taste in her mouth. Serena must realize that her blackness unites some whites, no matter their status, against her when her opponent is white. Bias and bigotry during US tennis tournaments is well known, but to see and hear French men and women behave like "redneck-trailer-park-trash" was a flashback to Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolf.

Tarnishing the French reputation for hospitality with tennis buffs and lovers of fair play alike, the ugly spectacle revealed the depth of racism blacks endure to an international audience. Winning or losing has value only if the playing field is level. In America, slavery, segregation and discrimination produced a permanent slant in favor of whites in all fields of endeavor. Europe, France in particular, has always represented a place where blacks were welcomed to ply their trade on an equal footing with others. However, fan rudeness took the sheet off the ugly truth of bias hidden beneath the pomp and ceremony at Roland-Garros.

The French Open made crystal several lessons Serena and Venus have yet to learn. First, blackness is strength, so know that every time you take the court, the hopes and prayers of millions around the world are with you. Next, be aware of the media, today's hemlock. They demand you bleach and dye to gain acceptance, a Socrates mixture of death that cuts a fate like Samson's. Venus' failure to spread her "Phoenix-like" wing span and advance to the net keeps her on the defensive. Serena's reliance on power and failure to keep her eyes on the ball rob her of finesse, which makes her predictable. Finally, under the watchful eyes and patience of Papa Williams, the girls achieved a level of play never before imagined. Without his steady hand and calming influence, both Serena and Venus have become shaky in tough matches before hostile crowds.

Undoubtedly, the best players in the game today, neither has found herself as a player, because neither has found herself as a person. The events at Roland-Garros showed clearly that their color matters. The bottom line is Serena and Venus must understand that many whites see them as two little darkies who should be in someone's kitchen, instead of playing white folks' games and winning trophies by dominating white girls. Their every point was a slap in the face to French rednecks and to them, a black eye for Roland Garros mattered little compared to a darkie carrying the day. So much for the refuge from hatred, bigotry and racism in France! Other Essays by John Burl Smith

Truth Campaign

Count down to Poets for Peace Bomb Bush with Truth Campaign. Pump up your networks for the July 4, 2003 kick off. E-mail, snail mail, FAX or telephone members of the British Parliament, US Congress, the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. For more information, contact thedish@surfglobal.net. News You Use Homepage

A Sin Against God!

By Ruby Lee Bozeman-Davis

It is a sin against God what we have allowed the juvenile justice system to do to our children. If it were not for the nonviolent offenders, we would not have a Juvenile Justice System.

Over the years, we have allowed this system to become a corrupt shell of its former self. The lack of supervision solely on the behalf of the children's best interest is missing. Therefore, common practices such as "stacking" have repeatedly been administered on our youth. "Stacking" occurs when juveniles are arrested for one nonviolent crime (misdemeanor), then two or more additional charges are added to ensure the child's conviction. With such acts, the Juvenile Justice System has become an incubator for the prison system.

If the same laws that place children on probation, in detention centers and in jails existed when we were young, most of us would have had a different fate. That fate could have landed us in confinement back then, which would have changed our lives till this day. With the harsh practices condoned on the new generation, we allow our society to outlaw adolescence.

Another factor against our children is apathetic judges that do not enforce the bail law. Sadly, in some cases the parents are no better than the judges. They rarely take the time to research their children's rights and resources in place to help them. As a result, the Juvenile Injustice System places children in detention centers and jails where they are raped and assaulted. How can anyone sleep at night knowing these children are being brutalized? There were reported cases of children hanging themselves. How can we say we love God when we refuse to protect his children? We have to take the initiative and stand up for our children.

Our youth have become the new black crop of the new south, whereas cotton was the white crop of the old south. Our children are the seeds that feed the juvenile justice system. The soil is detention centers and jails. Zero tolerance, parental neglect, mandatory minimum, breakdown of the family and poor education in our schools are the fertilizer. The judges, police officers, probation officers, lawyers and solicitors are the rain that helps the crop grows. All of the above feeds the crop that is soon to die on the vine, but the leaf never falls to the ground. The system continues to lynch our children and we allow the seed to be sown.

Our children end up dead mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Our knees are tired now, but one needs to be real careful about what they do to praying people's children. Vengeance is mine saith the lord. Who really hears the cries of the children? Jesus and Grandmothers! Hood Notes Homepage

Students Not Soldiers

Many of the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq joined the armed forces because there were no jobs and few opportunities for them outside the military. Rather than go to college or get a cushy job, they are mastering the art of death on foreign soil.

Recent reports indicate recruitment in the all-volunteer armed forces is down considerably. Given the rise in US aggression and the prospect of preemption against other nations, the armed forces have lost much of their former appeal, even for young people with few options. Even people with jobs that joined the National Guard in record numbers in the 1990s to augment their incomes are shying away from military service.

In 2001, George W. Bush signed the education reform bill called the No Child Left Behind Act. Included in that legislation is a provision that requires all public schools to release students' names, addresses and telephone numbers to military recruiters. This little known provision has been met with resistance in several cities around the country - including Washington, D.C.

Several "Making Students not Soldiers" workshops have been held in the DC area. If you would like to arrange a workshop for your group, contact Trent Moyer at the American Friends Service Committee 202-299-1050 or email trent@mutualaid.org. In addition, "Stopping War Where It Begins: Organizing Against Militarism in Our Schools" is coming to Philadelphia June 27-29, 2003. This national counter-recruitment conference is a great way to learn more about the issues and get involved in organizing. For more information, go to www.youthandthemilitary.org, and contact Trent regarding transportation to the conference from DC. Politics Homepage

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is busy with the social stuff that comes with summer day camp. When asked for comments, he wavered and then admitted, "Grandma, some of those kids are rough." Back to the Bat Cave

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)

After the Civil War, Southern states passed numerous laws, collectively known as "black codes," to restrict the rights of newly emancipated blacks. While they varied from state to state, these laws kept blacks in a state of socioeconomic and political slavery. Angered by southern intransigence, Congress, led by "Radical Republicans," overrode vetoes by President Andrew Johnson to pass sweeping legislation, including a series of Reconstruction Acts in 1867-68, that placed the former Confederate states under military occupation and protected the civil rights of former slaves.

In general, whites, North and South, considered blacks inferior and hence unfit to receive the vote or the rights and privileges of US citizenship. Yet, Radical Republicans demanded that blacks receive the franchise and passed laws to protect their basic civil rights. Historians of the era attributed several motives to their actions during the post-war reconstruction. These included a desire to keep their party in power and to protect Northern business interests. Southerners were primarily Democrats and newly registered blacks voted overwhelmingly for Republican candidates.

While not a majority even within their own party, the Radical Republicans played leading roles in passage of the Reconstruction and Civil Rights Acts following the Civil War and led efforts to ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution. Although their party's sitting President during the war - Abraham Lincoln - originally opposed the idea, Radical Republicans advocated the enlistment of black troops. In general, the Radicals believed Lincoln was too soft in his prosecution of the war and too gentle in his plans for the readmission of former Confederate states to the Union. When President Andrew Johnson was equally easy on the men the Radicals considered traitors, they took the lead in efforts to impeach Johnson, who opposed their Reconstruction program.

Led by Thaddeus Stevens, who is credited with the slavery reparations term "forty acres and a mule," Radical Republicans tried to restrain Johnson and facilitate administering the Reconstruction program with passage of the Tenure of Office and Command of the Army Acts (1867). The former forbade the President from removing civil officials, including cabinet members, without the Senate's consent. It basically protected the job of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who cooperated with the Radicals. The other law barred the President from issuing military orders except through the commanding general of the army (General Ulysses S. Grant), whose headquarters were to be in Washington and who could not be relieved or assigned elsewhere without the Senate approval.

The only legal grounds for impeaching a president are high crimes or misdemeanors. Johnson had committed no such acts until he suspended Secretary of War Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office Act. When the Senate refused to concur in the suspension, Johnson dismissed Stanton.

Radicals in the House of Representatives brought eleven charges against Johnson. The first nine dealt with the violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The tenth and eleventh charged Johnson with making speeches calculated to bring Congress into disrespect and of not faithfully enforcing various Reconstruction Acts.

In the trial before the Senate (March 25-26, 1868), Johnson's lawyers maintained that he was justified in technically violating a law in order to force a test case and that the measure did not apply to Stanton anyway; it gave tenure to cabinet members for the term of the President by whom they had been appointed, and Stanton had been appointed by Lincoln.

The House managers of the impeachment argued that Johnson had opposed the will of Congress. They implied that in doing so he was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. Although they pressured Republican Senators, seven joined the twelve Democrats to vote for acquittal. On three of the charges the vote was 35 to 19, one short of the required two-thirds majority. (Sources: American History: A Survey, Current, Williams & Friedel, www.csusm.edu and www.u-s-history.com) History Homepage

Disgruntled wants to know: When former President Bill Clinton lied about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Radical Republicans cited the rule of law in impeaching him and demanding his removal. The list of charges was so flimsy the Senate voted for acquittal. Now that the world may have been told a series of serious lies to justify a preemptive aggression, which violated international law, resulted in the loss of thousands of lives, including an ever growing number of dead Americans, and cost billions of dollars, will the Radical Republicans invoke the rule of law, vigorously pursue all Iraq-gate liars and charge the Bush Administration with high crimes and misdemeanors?

Disgruntled says: Nearly 140 years after the Civil War, the attitudes that colored relations between blacks and whites still persist. Data from social surveys show the majority of whites believe blacks are less intelligent, more violent and lazier than whites. Nearly half of all whites believe blacks are less patriotic and more prone to rely on welfare than whites. More important, in every socioeconomic and political sphere, whites act on these stereotypes. This explains the persistence of the relative gap that exists between black and white life and debunks the silly notion that the USA is a color-blind society.

Disgruntled feels: Impacted by strict construction! Black Americans recently kicked off the year-long observance of the 50th anniversary of the landmark US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). When the Court handed down the Brown decision, black and white children attended separate and grossly unequal public schools. Black children were educated in segregated, often dilapidated, buildings with inferior labs and secondhand books. Today, conditions have changed little, thanks in part to segregated housing patterns. Most inner-city schools still get secondhand books, students do not have computers at every desk, nor are their schools wired for the Internet. Stacked with strict construction justices, the Court is the chief culprit. It has refused to enforce its own ruling "with all deliberate speed." And, in the process, the Brown decision has had minimal impact on public school desegregation. Separate and unequal is still the rule. More Disgruntled Moments

Email salikat208@netzero.net: If the real drug dealers are to be found in tenement walk-ups and public housing, there would be no drugs in those communities. No one living there can afford to go get them. They do not possess the money to purchase drugs in bulk amounts (tons). Nor can they afford the cost of shipping and still have the money necessary for payoffs to insure safe transport and delivery. This type of operation requires an army! It is this army that you pitiful specimen of a police force are afraid to face! So to feel like big strong unstoppable men, you use shock grenades and attack children, elderly women and the homeless. Unfairly engaging someone, shooting them in the back! You guys are pitiful fearful specimen of men, until you find the courage to go after the real drug dealers.

Email activist_issue@yahoogroups.com: In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg was working at the Defense Department. Recognizing that the public was being deceived about Vietnam and anticipating that President Nixon was about to escalate the war, Ellsberg risked imprisonment to leak the Pentagon Papers -- 7,000 pages of top-secret memoranda -- to the New York Times. This would ultimately force Nixon to resign rather than face impeachment. Ellsberg's book, "Secrets," undermines the naive assumption that political leaders' inexplicable actions in times of war are based on accurate information from reliable sources. "Secrets" provides much needed insight for today's situation as many question the information George W. Bush used to base his claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Email helenamcd@yahoo.com: Did George Bush lie in his State of the Union address? Did his Administration mislead Congress to secure backing for war against Iraq? Were Intelligence Officers forced to file cooked reports to support Bush policies? These questions seem far more important than whether or not Bill Clinton had relations with Monica Lewinsky. We spent tens of millions of dollars to find out if Clinton lied about a personal matter that only affected his family. If George Bush lied, thousands of families were affected. Only an independent investigation can answer the above questions. We urge you to ask Congress to do more than hold hearings behind closed doors by funding the Office of the Independent Counsel and appointing a Special Prosecutor. Act today! Email representatives at http://capwiz.com/voice4change/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=2436026.

Email http://pnews.org/: According to Dr. Helen Caldicott, the 1991 Gulf War was a nuclear war. The depleted uranium weapons deployed by the US had a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Parts of Iraq and Kuwait "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time." US authorities knew prior to Desert Storm that aerosol uranium exposure under battlefield conditions could lead to cancers and birth defects, but they chose to use them anyway, exposing Americans as well as Iraqis.

Email callmecrazy@aol.com: I read several accounts of the "daring" Jessica Lynch rescue. It was staged! Eleven of her comrades, whose names nobody recalls, were killed. There is this mania over getting the rights to air Lynch's story because she is white. From the same company, Shoshanna Johnson was shot and another woman was killed, but neither of these women is white, so their ordeal is no big deal. This is so typical! More Mailbox

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